Lots of people contributed to NYRA takeout mess

Many people and entities shared the blame for $7.4 million in the New York Racing Association’s improper assessments on horse race bettors, according to a new Inspector General’s Office report out Monday and reported in the Times Union.

Key quote in the report: “First and foremost, NYRA’s law department failed to ensure that NYRA was complying
with the statutorily mandated takeout rates for its wagers.”

While this is bad, most of the perpetrators are gone and most of those harmed have been recompensed. The bigger problem is that a race track bet can have a 24% takeout, which is far too much. Instead of trying to attract casual visitors to Saratoga with giveaways and other promotions, NYRA should be working on cutting the takeout so that its regular customers, who sustain racing not only in August but in February, can afford to stay in the game. A good place to start would be to trim back the purses on NY Bred races that are now on par with the same grade of race for open company, though the NY Bred horses actually are several classes below (if they weren’t, they could compete effectively in open company). When I see a purse of $90,000 for a preliminary allowance race for State-breds, I want to puke, all the more so when I realize that the excessive purse is being funded by myself and other bettors.

I look forward to the headlines that casino gambling will provide. Do we really need another way to bilk the public, when the NYRA has already been caught with it’s collective hand in the publics cookie jar. Not that there are many cookies there anyhow. But here is a link that demonstrates the odds for future gamblers. The article says 20 years, but another report I saw on TV said it is since 1989, or 25 years. There will be only three real winners with casino gambling, the casino owners, King Kash Kuomo, and his crooked political allies.
>http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/couple-wins-2-4-million-vegas-slot-machine-jackpot-article-1.1915046